What does "traffic" mean?
Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
Traffic
/ˈtɹæfɪk/ adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
- Grammar: traffic is listed as adj, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: answer, balance of trade, bargain, barter.
- Useful contrasts: clear road, halt, hold.
- Usage evidence: At this hour, there is incredible traffic.
How to use "traffic"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "traffic" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "traffic" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "traffic" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "traffic" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "traffic" is acting as adj, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "answer" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "traffic", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof. uncountable, usually
"The traffic is slow during rush hour."
- 2 social or verbal interchange (usually followed by ‘with’) wordnet
- 3 The commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people. uncountable, usually
"I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians)."
- 4 buying and selling; especially illicit trade wordnet
- 5 The illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs. uncountable, usually
"They, in turn, had long dominated the drug traffic in the area of north-east Afghanistan that they controlled during the Taliban years."
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 the amount of activity over a communication system during a given period of time wordnet
- 7 The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network. uncountable, usually
"The parish stank of idolatry, abominable rites were practiced in secret, and in all the bounds there was no one had a more evil name for the black traffic than one Alison Sempill, who bode at the Skerburnfoot."
- 8 the aggregation of things (pedestrians or vehicles) coming and going in a particular locality during a specified period of time wordnet
- 9 The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.; Of CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others. uncountable, usually
- 10 The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.; The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc., in a publication. uncountable, usually
"Those fixed locations which are sold to advertisers become preferred according to the expected page traffic."
- 11 The commodities of the market. uncountable, usually
"You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear."
Verb
- 1 To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods. intransitive
- 2 trade or deal a commodity wordnet
- 3 To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain. intransitive
- 4 deal illegally wordnet
- 5 To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration. transitive
"A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever, through the right of lawful purchase."
Adjective
- 1 Congested. Philippines
"It’s super traffic here in Manila."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"At this hour, there is incredible traffic."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "traffic"?
Common synonyms include: answer, balance of trade, bargain, barter, be in, big business.
How do you use "traffic" in a sentence?
At this hour, there is incredible traffic.
How do you pronounce "traffic"?
Pronounced /ˈtɹæfɪk/.
Etymology
From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *trānsfrīcāre (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic تَفْرِيق (tafrīq, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”). The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.